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The eerie, rough-and-tumble mystique of San Quentin prison has been with me since I was a little boy listening to Johnny Cash’s At San Quentin on my plastic turntable decades ago. Staring at the vinyl disc turning round and round, my imagination spun in equal measure. Not only was I fascinated by Cash’s cooler-than-cool voice and desperado sense of humor, I couldn’t help being intrigued by all those outlaws in the audience. They were applauding and cackling at Cash’s jokes, but I wondered about the crimes they had committed and what life could be like inside that old jail. It gave me a shiver.

Fast forward nearly 40 years. I am in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco during Yoga Journal Conference. A calm, kind gentleman introduces himself as James Fox, a yoga instructor whose passion is teaching inmates at San Quentin.

To read the complete article, visit the Common Ground website, go to the back issues section, and look for September 2010. Yoga in San Quentin: Where a Step on the Mat is Step in the Right Direction by Rob Sidon starts on page 56. ​